Crossroads
Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
Jeremiah 6:16
The Crossroads Initiative
Crossroads is an initiative of Together for the Common Good. A new report is now available: The Crossroads Initiative: Discerning the future direction for Christian social action. Download via the link at the bottom of this page.
Our current context
We are living through a time of unravelling. We see community cohesion giving way to polarisation. The liberal consensus that shaped our political, social and economic life for decades has failed. The tensions around mismanaged immigration, the cost of living, unaffordable housing, job insecurity, and growing destitution reveal how ordinary people have been let down by both market and state.
The state of UK social action
Over the past few decades, Christian social action has evolved, with a significant increase in debt advice, night shelters and food banks addressing many symptoms of poverty. Yet the growth of these crisis responses is not something to celebrate. Despite the heroic efforts, demand has risen and poverty has deepened. The coming years look likely to be even more difficult.
Our social witness stands at a crossroads. What direction will we take? This is no time for complacency. We must grapple with serious questions: about the underlying causes of poverty, the purpose of charitable work and the reality of mission drift.
THE THREE SINS OF SOCIAL ACTION
We have identified three “sins” of social action which need to be addressed:
1. The disconnect between charity and justice.
Much social action operates downstream from the forces that create poverty. While relief is vital, being “useful” while propping up a broken system is no longer credible. Rather than just calling for increases in welfare benefits, we must demand a form of social justice which addresses the drivers of inequality.
2. Dependency – the disconnect with empowerment.
While well-meaning, service-provision models can unintentionally generate dependency, rendering recipients passive rather than empowered with agency.
3. Secularisation – the disconnect with faith
Christian distinctiveness has suffered mission drift – through fear of losing funding, fossilised through neglect, or the fading of faith - becoming no different from an NGO.
Our problem statement: Christian social action has increasingly adopted a service provider approach which can alienate those it seeks to help, turning neighbours into recipients. This mission drift has sidelined economic justice, fostered dependency, and weakened the distinctively relational witness Christ intended.
The change we want to see: Christian social action should be relational and reciprocal: empowering people to stand on their own two feet, building communities of solidarity thriving on the dignity of work rather than surviving on welfare. Our social action must be distinctive and be rooted in the Biblical call to ‘act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).
Background
In 2024, Together for the Common Good commissioned Jon Kuhrt’s lecture Grace, Truth and the Common Good: the Future of Christian Social Action. The response of social action leaders and subsequent events led to further interventions including a discernment retreat for social action leaders in November 2024, after which a report was published in April 2025.
In March 2026 a feasibility study was commissioned to test diagnosis and themes, and to gauge interest for a future project. This was carried out in consultation with 73 key stakeholders and practitioners across the churches.
Now
The findings of the 2026 feasibility study have been assembled in a new report, The Crossroads Initiative: Discerning the future direction for Christian social action.
We invite you to read the report. Comments are most welcome.
The Crossroads Initiative is led by Rachel Arnold (formerly Head of Church Engagement, Christians Against Poverty), Jon Kuhrt (CEO, Hope into Action), and Jenny Sinclair (Founder/Director, T4CG).
Next steps
We believe that this research signals the need for a long-term piece of work. We envisage Crossroads not as a competing organisation but as a convening initiative that resources culture, theology, language, and practice across the Christian social action sector. If funded, the next step would be a two year foundation phase, the outline of which is described in the report.
Expressions of interest are warmly invited as we seek the funding needed to proceed.
Latest: reporting on the Crossroads 2026 feasibility study
The Crossroads feasibility study engaged with 73 leaders from across Christian social action and across different Christian traditions. We found a strong appetite for change, with all three "sins” resonating widely. The framework proved to be robust, surfacing good practice, while enabling disagreement and nuance across a wide range of traditions and experience. The study also identified a gap: that no existing initiative addresses all three challenges together around a coherent Christian vision of human flourishing.
We believe this unique study gives Crossroads a mandate to move forward, and we are proposing that this begins with a two-year foundation phase. If funded, this will build on what is already working by sharing good practice, developing the theological foundations, working with practitioners and funders and building learning communities, shaped throughout by people with lived experience of poverty. The aim is to strengthen and resource the wider Christian social action sector, equipping it meet the new challenges of our time.
Read the report: The Crossroads Initiative: Discerning the future direction for Christian social action
[Button: Download the full report: (PDF)]
All comments to: annette@togetherforthecommongood.co.uk
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